To boldly go where no punks had gone before

On a Star Trek TV special the late DJ John Peel described Spizzenergi’s intergalactic hit as the only Star Trek song worthy of a slot on the Enterprise’s jukebox.

It may have been only two minutes and 17 seconds of pop punk mayhem, but Where’s Captain Kirk? beamed Spizzenergi into another universe.

“It was an amalgam of two ideas, but the first couple of lines of Captain Kirk came to me riding on the top deck of a London bus,” said Spizz, who co-wrote the unlikely hit with keyboard player Mark Coalfield.

“I didn’t have a pen and paper, but when I got home I wrote: ‘I was beamed aboard The Starship Enterprise. What I felt was a total surprise.”

Spizz, who brings Spizzenergi to Rebellion Festival at Blackpool Winter Gardens from August 2 to 5, added: “When I played it to the band they all fell about laughing, but then the audience went berserk when we put it in the set.

“I was interested in space travel, and I had a collection of Star Trek photo novels.

“I could always hear the speech bubbles from the different characters in my head, Scotty, Spock, and Captain Kirk, of course, and that was the germ of the idea.

“It still gets played on the radio and people stop me and go: ‘Ere, I’ve got that record – Where’s Captain Kirk?’

Spizz even married punk with disco in the insanely catchy Soldier, Soldier, a powerful ant-war rant, championed by Paul Weller and Frank Zappa.

Before two more Star Trek related tracks, Spock’s Missing and Five Year Mission (Featuring the Return of Spock), kept Spizz travelling through time at warp factor nine.

Mad cap Spizz would even change the name of the group each year. He called the Guinness Book of Records to try to endorse his claim that he’d recorded and released the greatest number of recordings under different names: Spizz Oil, Athletico Spizz 80, Spizzenergi and so on.

“I wrote them a lovely letter, but they said it was way too specialized,” said Spizz.

“I thought that was bonkers, especially when they’d endorsed a guy eating a motorbike.”

Spizz will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Where’s Captain Kirk next year, but admits it is becoming increasingly difficult to make ends meet as the years roll on.

“It is probably make or break time now because I can’t keep going forever, it is hard work getting gigs these days.

“We are punk’s survivors I suppose, and I don’t do as many star jumps on stage as I used to do.

“I fell off my bike the other day – I just wanted to see what it would be like hitting concrete at 15mph, so I’ve really not calmed down that much.”